Opinion Archive

My newest article, “Do the Beliefs of Others Infuriate You?” is up at The Huffington Post. This piece is an attempt to explain some guiding principles that I try to use for myself when engaging those who have beliefs that I disagree with, especially when they are frustratingly bad beliefs. The points I make

How did you learn the alphabet? Did it involve a picture book which taught you that “D stands for dog” and “B stands for bear,” each punctuated by cute images of animals? That’s how a normal person might do it, but the Puritans preferred scaring their children into literacy.

When we began The Discarded Image in 2009, the main purpose of the blog was to provide a place for Mindy (my co-contributor) and me to explore fresh perspectives on the world and its future. While that purpose has remained, we’ve discovered that our scope and interests have traveled a bit. So we’ve made

I don’t know about you, but I spent all of last week glued to Twitter, following the manhunt in Boston, the explosion in West Texas and the earthquake in China. I knew the Pulitzers had been announced (and that this year’s board had avoided last year’s misstep in the Fiction category) but until this

My newest piece, “That’s not academics, Texas; it’s religious indoctrination,” is up at Toledo Faith and Values (the local hub of The Religion News Service). A recent report on Texas religion courses in public schools showed a significant bias in teaching for several districts. In some of these instances, the bias was deemed intentional.

My latest contribution to Toledo Faith and Values, “Why Everyone Should Write an Autobiography,” went up almost two weeks ago. The timing of its publication, while entirely coincidental (I wrote it in December), connects with a recent kerfuffle over the relationship between journalism and narcissism. At Gawker, Hamilton Nolan’s piece “Journalism Is Not Narcissism,” challenged

Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of my (and probably a bazillion other peoples’) favorite public faces of science. Sure, I also love Bill Nye, but Tyson just always connects with me. He is intelligent, hilarious, and thoughtful, and most of all he’s an accessible communicator. He’s also on my top 10 list of people

As if the Sandy Hook shooting wasn’t tragic enough, many of the responses from religious leaders represented the worst in humanity. As a result, I wrote (somewhat therapeutically) “Why Do Some Theologians Blame The Victim?” for The Huffington Post religion section. There is not much I need to say to lead into this except that I hope